Today is All Saints Day, when the Christian church honors all saints, not just the ones we know about.
The title of this post references one of my mother's favorite sayings. Mom didn't take the Lord's name in vain very often, but when she did her fallback was "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and all the little saints...." That naturally leads to the question, "Who are the little saints?"
One of the phrases used in the Episcopal liturgy is "all the saints in heaven...." The belief is that anyone who has entered into God's presence is a saint, whether we know who they are or not. Unlike the Roman Catholics, we do not have a process for determining if someone is a saint, but we recognize all the ones on the Roman calendar from before the Reformation and we acknowledge others who might be worthy of recognition, including modern individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr.
So, if you have a relative who has passed that you firmly believe is in heaven, he or she is one of the "little saints." Honor them all today.
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